Katie likes snow. (click on photos for more fun filled details.)
Run Katie run!
A lot.
After all she’s a Sheltie and her breed comes from a rugged island in the far north.
So much snow, so little time.
Yesterday we played a little in the snow. She was really more interested in hunting the elusive chipmunk than playing Frisbee. I threw it once and she ran to catch it but then deposited it far away from me.
Subtle isn’t she.
Sitting for Mama’s stupid camera.
Lake Michigan shivers.
Last weekend I drove 4 hours ‘up north’ to visit friends and see some really beautiful snow near my favorite lake. Every time I go to Northport I feel the tug of life in the north, the extraordinary beauty there, the sense of community. I am always sad to leave.
This weekend a bit of the northern beauty, the snow, came to me.
Backyard snow.
Today as I wake to blue skies and snow clad trees I have to say there is some extraordinary beauty right here. I know. I say that all the time. But it’s true. No matter where you are there’s something beautiful to be found.
The deck waiting for summer.
Not to say that I don’t still feel that pull of Northport. Cause I do.
But home is pretty nice too.
Home again.
Sometimes when we have days and days of snow and the sky seems dreary and spring seems far away it helps to find some color. Anywhere. Here’s some color I found way up north this past weekend. (Remember to click on the photos to see more detail.)
Pretty in pink
I think in this part of the country people go out of their way to make sure there’s a little color around all winter.
Fish flying v.s. fly fishing
Sometimes there’s color that you don’t even understand. That’s OK.
Never used by Superman
Sometimes color just makes you smile. That’s good too.
Yum! Gelato!
So if you’re feeling a little worn down by winter look around. Maybe something pretty will catch your eye. Maybe it will make you smile.
You’re one day closer to spring!
Birds waiting for the light.
Following in friend’s path.
I spent the weekend ‘up north’ in Michigan, visiting a friend up at the tip of Michigan’s little finger.
It was a wonderful weekend full of good talk and good food and lots of snow.
Chasing the snow front.
Snow is a good thing when you get to play in it rather than try to commute in it.
Peaceful.
Sure is pretty too.
Snowy orchard.
Enough now….maybe more later. I’m settling back into my real life.
Climbing the mountain of real life.
Sigh.
Good memories.
Wait! I know it’s Wordless Wednesday…but I have words I want to say. And you know I never quite know what day it is anyway. So let me tell you about community band rehearsal last night. Thanks to Ricky’s Mom I practiced at least 30 minutes every day this past week. Even when I didn’t want to. Some days it was an hour because I just got caught up in the music. Well. Only a couple times did it go beyond 30 minutes. But still.
Just a moment. A certain sheltie who will remain anonymous seems to need my attention….
There’s something OUT THERE Mama!
What? Be quiet??? Really?
Pouting.
ZZZZ z z z..z…z…
…so anyway…I was telling you about last night. We’re a community band and we use a public school to get together every Tuesday night and practice. We have a concert in a few weeks and the music is difficult. So when I woke up to the news the public schools were closed due to icy back roads I just knew the director who is a public school band director would get us in the closed building. I was right and she did, and more than that the school superintendent sent a custodian to open the building for us. We are so grateful to have the support of the school administration.
We had a wonderful rehearsal. Everyone showed up! And you could tell people spent some time on the music since last week; things fell together and there were some nice sounds. Some not so nice as well, but we have 3 more rehearsals so we can pound those out.
So thanks Ricky’s Mom! For making me accountable to practice every single night. I need to do that this week too, but I’m heading out of town this weekend. That means I need to spend time with the music tonight and Thursday night for sure.
OK Katie. Let’s go check out the scary rain before I head off to work. Silly girl.
It’s noisy Mama!
I thought you might like to see a local farmer’s field. Really. It’s the prettiest field, with a gentle set of hills and a fringe of trees. I look at it each time I drive by, and it’s a little different every day. So a year or so ago I decided to stop and photograph it once during each season. Click on the photos to see the detail…and enjoy the seasons in Michigan.
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Car on the wall.
Scott has challenged us to show what winter means to us. Since I live in Michigan I suppose you are expecting snowy photos. But we don’t always have snow where I live near Detroit. Maybe you expect to see wide expanses of frozen lake. But our lakes don’t always freeze either. So what does happen each year at the height of winter here? Well, the North American International Auto Show happens in January, here in Detroit, every single year. Even in the bad years the show went on. but you can tell the auto industry is on its way back by the size of the show this year. (Click on the photos to see the detail.)
Especially beautiful were some of the concept cars…
Concept cars stretch our imagination.
…and the extraordinarily expensive cars…
This Bentley was only $135,000.
…and today’s version of muscle cars.
Life size hot wheel car.
So many cars, so many choices. It’s hard to choose! How about one of each?!
Katie here. Mama says she is just too exhausted to explain everything that happened when I got my new title yesterday. So I guess it’s up to me. Geeze. I have to do everything around here! Besides, my view is the accurate version of the day. No matter what anyone else says. Because I’m the princess.
So anyway, Mama never got anything in the mail about what time stuff started, or how many dogs were entered, so we didn’t know when to get to the big event. It was a HUGE show, about an hour away, where they had conformation dogs, and people in fancy clothes running around in circles with dogs who had their fur poofed up and hair sprayed. Huh. How silly is that!? I mean, Mama didn’t even poof me up and everyone said I was beautiful. Except for those people over on the other side of the building with their fancy shelties who were too busy spraying their dogs to notice me wandering around.
We go the the venue at 8 a.m. because that’s when the website said stuff started. Turns out they were doing stuff already! But our class wasn’t schedule to run until 1 p.m.! Mama was a bit peeved, but there was another person from our school already there, so we set up camp next to her and Dad and Mama and I hung out for 5 hours together. We went on lots of walks, and sometimes I stayed in my crate, but mostly I was content to lay in my Dad’s lap. That surprised Mama a lot because I’m not a lap dog at all.
Sitting with my Dad
Finally it was our turn. By then I wasn’t sure what we were doing there at all. I figured I was there to judge all the other dogs as they came and went. Sure were a lot of beautiful dogs and their crazy owners there! I was getting really sleepy and was all warm and snuggly when suddenly Mama plucked me off of my Dad’s lap and said we were on! On what Mama?
So we’re hanging out at the gate waiting for our classmate to finish her run, and the registration table is right there and there’s this really big lady sitting there, right next to me, and suddenly she laughed really loud and hysterically and that scares me a lot! And I jump up and try to get away from her and my Mama is telling me to sit, and the floor is slippery and I can’t sit and that lady is making a bunch of noise and my Mama is talking to me and the whole thing is just too much and then Mama tells me to heel and we’re inside the ring and I don’t want to be there, and the judge lady must be really tired because she asks Mama if we’re ready and I’m still looking over my shoulder and Mama doesn’t even get to ask me if we’re ready to work, and the judge lady says forward before we’re ready and Mama sighs and starts to move.
So. I figure when Mama moves, I move so I come along too…and that’s when I see it…a lovely jump about half way down the ring! Well. You all know how much I love to jump so I start moving faster, fixated on that jump. I just know Mama wants me to fly over it, to show off all my fur and how beautiful I am. But then my Mama is sort of pushing into me with her leg and saying Katie…KATIE! and back BACK!, and then she herds me! Can you believe it? Mama is herding ME the herding princess! She sort of pushes mes into this big circle left and right then I realize….we’re WORKING! OH! OK then Mama, why didn’t you say so? I thought we were just having fun, I didn’t realize we were working!
You all know I take my work very seriously, so from that point on I watched my Mama very carefully and did almost everything she wanted. OK. I sat crooked on one part but whatever. Everybody said I looked beautiful and I don’t think anyone else besides my Mama knows that I was going to take that jump early. We got either a 94 or a 97, Mama forgot to go read the scores after, she was too happy that the whole thing was over. We got first place too! Well…there were only two of us, and the other doggie walked out of the ring in the middle of his run…but still!
I stayed awake all the way home. Mama says my eyes were closed and my head was bobbing, but I was just resting my eyes. No sleep allowed for the princess. Cause I’ve got to do everything around here.
Mama says there will be video once she figures out how to upload it. Geeze. Mamas are so slow to learn stuff. I could probably do it myself, but I don’t want to upstage her.
A princess is always polite.
Resting my eyes at home.
Change Is Hard 